birding-aus

Re: blackface

To: <>
Subject: Re: blackface
From: "Wim Vader" <>
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:16:38 +0200


        During my vists to Australia I was fascinated (and occasionally 
stumped) by the national craze to abbreviate all that can possibly be 
abbreviated, from Tazzie to garbos. Also birds do not escape, and it took me 
some time to find my way among the Kookies and cockies, and to figures out what 
Fuskies were. On my first trip with a fishing boat off Wollangong, where we put 
out baited traps in 1993 on a transect from 50 to 1000 m depth (I have done 
this several places , from Cape Tasman in the south to Cairns in the north, so 
have seen quite a number of your pelagics), I remember the skipper , who knew 
of my birding interest, calling out: There's your Albie!, when the first 
albatross came into view. So it is fun to see a debate breaking out on 
Birding-aus, asking for further abbreviations!

        For the rest I am of the opinion, that regional names are often the 
best to keep the local people interested, never mind that they vary from area 
to area and that often the same name is used for different birds in different 
areas. Here in N.Norway people talk about Kattugle and Musvåg, although neither 
bird (the Tawny Owl and the Common Buzzard) occurs in the north; the names are 
transposed to the Short-eared Owl and the Rough-legged Buzzard. But it is no 
use to try to correct the locals in these things; these names are valid 
regional names for the birds concerned.


                                                                                
        Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
                                                                                
        9037 Tromsø, Norway
                                                                                
        
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